This paper presents the final results from the systematic re-examination of a household assemblage, known as the “House of Pithoi” in the South Quarter of Argos, excavated by the late Prof. Francis Croissant in 1966, and dated to the Middle Helladic (MH) period. The purpose of the study is to (a) present the four distinct architectural phases, which cover the entire span from MH I to MH II early, (b) highlight the burials made, both during its period of occupation and (...) shortly after its abandonment, (c) describe the early MH pottery in detail, and (d) discuss and contextualize the storage facilities of the House of Pithoi – dating from the beginning of the MH period. These, taken with other pieces of evidence including the wider socio-economic circumstances in the Argive plain, reveal a more dynamic situation than traditionally thought. (shrink)

Important to the essays here is the possibility of using logos without the negative, restricting and violent aspects of logos. In this respect I speak about affirmation and about tragic awareness rather than about the tragic itself or tragic conflict, as I read texts of a literary democracy that is already here, texts by Don DeLillo, Tomas Transtromer, John Ashbery and Thanasis Valtinos, or see arrangements by Lo Snofall. Indeed it is all about arrangements, about knowing how to affirm and (...) doing it rather than using language and its codes in order to transcribe, however accurate this might be. Arrangements say yes, since they do not raise any absolute boundaries. The arrangement is a logos without logos: it is a cosmos, where affirming is a tragically aware cosmetics. Cosmos is neither the world nor any ordering or embellishment of this world, but an openness as the incalculable accumulation of arrangements that say yes in their awareness that they do not amount to an ontology. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

Ethicists, policy-makers, and the general public have questioned whether artificial entities such as robots warrant rights or other forms of moral consideration. There is little synthesis of the research on this topic so far. We identify 294 relevant research or discussion items in our literature review of this topic. There is widespread agreement among scholars that some artificial entities could warrant moral consideration in the future, if not also the present. The reasoning varies, such as concern for the effects on (...) artificial entities and concern for the effects on human society. Beyond the conventional consequentialist, deontological, and virtue ethicist ethical frameworks, some scholars encourage “information ethics” and “social-relational” approaches, though there are opportunities for more in-depth ethical research on the nuances of moral consideration of artificial entities. There is limited relevant empirical data collection, primarily in a few psychological studies on current moral and social attitudes of humans towards robots and other artificial entities. This suggests an important gap for psychological, sociological, economic, and organizational research on how artificial entities will be integrated into society and the factors that will determine how the interests of artificial entities are considered. (shrink)

A model is proposed that deals with the observed collinearities (spatial, temporal and quantitative) of Hox gene expression during pattern formation along the primary and secondary axes of vertebrates. In particular, in the proximodistal axis of the developing limb, it is assumed that a morphogen gradient is laid down with its source at the distal tip of the bud. The extracellular signals in every cell of the morphogenetic field are transduced and uniformly amplified so that molecules are produced in the (...) nucleus with appropriate physicochemical properties. These molecules can exert a concentration‐dependent force on the Hox cluster. It is assumed that, before activation, the Hox cluster is packaged as an elongated rigid body inside the chromatin and is covered by a coat that prevents the transcription factors reaching the genes of the cluster. The transcription factors are confined to the interchromatin domain and their density decreases with their distance from the chromatin surface. A gradual increase in the extracellular morphogen concentration causes a corresponding increase in the number of the nuclear molecules and the resulting bigger force pushes the Hox cluster toward the interchromatin domain. The step‐by‐step translocations of the Hox cluster initiate the consecutive exposure of genes to their transcription factors. The model explains how gene activation is triggered and it describes spatial, temporal and quantitative collinearities at the initial stages of gene expression. Some recent experiments of Hox deletions and duplications are accounted for by the model. BioEssays 26:189–195, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The concept of “predatory” publishing, despite many studies of the phenomenon, continues to be unclear. This paper visualizes this topic through an epistemological perspective, claiming that these limitations emerge from an impressionism of idealization, the entrapment of cause and effect induced by a journalology-based perspective, and entrenched fantasized extraction, imagination and divination of what constitutes the truth, in essence, a path never followed by an _epistēmōn_. Reality, proof, verification, recorded observations and their interpretations have been pivoted to fit the theoretical (...) flavor of the day, an entity one day being predatory, the next not. Perhaps ephemeral judgements of predatory have been built on boundless disregard for common sense. Yet, these have led to scientists’ apotheosis, almost oblivious of the intangibility of “valid”, or the infinitesimal continuum of “predatory”. Perhaps their fault-ridden authoritarian argumentative disabilities is at fault. (shrink)

Modelling consent is a process prior to any discussion about it, be it theoretical or practical. Here, after examining consent, I shall attempt to present a “logical generator” that produces all different cases of consent, so that afterwards we may articulate a two-dimensional model which will enable us to coherently demonstrate all possible types of consent. The resulting model will be combined with Aristotle’s square of opposition, offering us even greater insight. I shall claim that full informed consent is an (...) archetype, not realized in most cases; it is just one case out of hundreds more. I shall conclude with an educational model for consent, the principle of specificity, arguing that if we wish to both understanding consent and become more adept in exercising it, we need a targeted educational system – not just “better education” in general. (shrink)

BackgroundThe Asclepion of Epidaurus is one of the first healing environments in the world. Descendants of Asclepius, specifically medical students, have been singularly deprived of any information concerning this legacy. This article illuminates the role of Asclepion of Epidaurus and examines the view of medical students upon the subject and the possible benefits of this knowledge in their medical education.MethodsThe participants were 105 senior-year students from the Athens Medical School, who attended a multi-media assisted lecture related to the structure and (...) the role of the Asclepion of Epidaurus. Afterwards, they answered anonymously a questionnaire of 12 pairs of opposite adjectives in order to describe their view regarding the meaning of Asclepion. The method used in the evaluation of their answers was that of semantic differential.ResultsThe attitude of the students towards the meaning of Asclepion was positive, showing interest and excitement about a powerful, though unfamiliar piece of knowledge.ConclusionToday’s novice doctors have welcomed the concept of Asclepion as essential knowledge for the service they will be called to fulfill. The potential benefits of the Asclepian ideals in medical education and ethos are thoroughly discussed. (shrink)

Current societal changes and challenges demand a broader role of technological universities, thus opening the question of how their role evolved over time and how to frame their current responsibility. In response to urgent calls for debating and redefining the identity of contemporary technological universities, this paper has two aims. The first aim is to identify the key characteristics and orientations marking the development of technological universities, as recorded in the history of engineering education. The second aim is to articulate (...) the responsibility of contemporary technological universities given their different orientations and characteristics. For this, we first provide a non-systematic literature review of the key pedagogical orientations of technological universities, grounded in the history of engineering education. The five major orientations of technological universities presented in the paper are technical, economic, social, political, and ecological. We then use this historical survey to articulate the responsibilities of contemporary technological universities reflecting the different orientations. Technological universities can promote and foster the development of scientific, professional, civic, legal, or intra- and inter- generational responsibility. We argue that responsibility is not specific to any particular orientation, such that the concept is broadened to complement each orientation or mix of orientations of a technological university. Our contribution thus serves as a call for technological universities to self-reflect on their mission and identity, by offering a lens for identifying the orientations they currently foster and making explicit the responsibility arising from their current orientation or the ones they strive to cultivate. (shrink)

The Consequentialist Scale (Robinson, 2012) [89] assesses the endorsement of consequentialist and deontological moral beliefs. This study empirically investigated the application of the Greek translation of the Consequentialist Scale in a sample of native Greek speakers. Specifically, 415 native Greek speakers completed the questionnaire. To uncover the underlying structure of the 10 items in the Consequentialist Scale, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted. The results revealed a three-factor solution, where the deontology factor exhibited the same structure as the original (...) work by Robinson (2012) [89], while the original consequentialism factor split into two separate factors. Significant Pearson's r correlations were observed between age and responses to the Consequentialist Scale. Separate EFAs were conducted for two age groups based on a medial split: younger (36 years old or less) and older (more than 36 years old). Interestingly, the younger group exhibited a two-factor solution with the same structure as the original work, while the older group showed a three-factor solution. A hierarchical k-means cluster analysis revealed that the cluster of participants who scored higher in deontology compared to consequentialism primarily consisted of older participants, whereas the two other clusters comprised of younger participants exhibited the reverse pattern. Neither gender nor previous experience with philosophy significantly affected scores on the Consequentialist Scale. Overall, our study provides evidence that the Consequentialist Scale is suitable for use in the Greek population. (shrink)

Although the use of pronouns has been extensively investigated in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), most studies have focused on English, and no study to date has investigated the use of subject pronouns in null subject languages. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating the use of subject and object pronouns in 5- to 8-year-old Greek-speaking high-functioning children with ASD compared to individually matched typically developing age and language controls. The ‘Frog where are you’ (Mayer, 1969) (...) narrative task was used to elicit subject and object pronouns as well as DPs. Greek is a null subject language, and as a result, subject pronouns most often remain without phonological content. The results showed that both groups used more null than overt subject pronouns, indicating that children with ASD know that Greek is a null subject language. TD children used more null subjects than subject DPs, whereas children with ASD used an equal proportion of null subjects and subject DPs. In terms of object pronouns, both groups produced more clitics and object DPs than strong object pronouns, but the difference between clitics and DPs did not reach significance in either of the groups. Importantly, the groups did not differ from each other in the use of ambiguous pronouns in both the subject and object position. The ASD children’s avoidance to use pronominal subjects can be taken as evidence that they use a strategy to avoid infelicitous reference. This would suggest that the ASD children’s difficulties with pronouns is not due to difficulties in core grammar. (shrink)

Psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, and Type-D personality are prevalent in patients with coronary heart disease and associated with poor cardiovascular outcomes. Worry and rumination may be among the core features responsible for driving psychological distress in these patients. However, the nature of associations between these constructs remains to be delineated, yet they may have implications for the assessment and treatment of CHD patients. This study aimed to explore the factorial structure and potential overlap between measures of depression, anxiety (...) and the Type-D personality factors known as negative affectivity and social inhibition, and examine how these constructs relate to worry and rumination in a sample of 1,042 CHD outpatients who participated in the in the cross-sectional NORwegian CORonary Prevention study. We conducted confirmatory factor analyses and regression analyses within a structural equation modeling framework. Results showed all constructs to have acceptable factor structure and indicated an overlap between the constructs of depression and negative affectivity. Worry was most strongly associated with anxiety, whereas rumination was most strongly associated with depression and negative affectivity. The results suggest conceptual similarities across the measures of depression and negative affectivity. They further suggest that intervention efforts could benefit from targeting worry and/or rumination in the treatment of CHD outpatients presenting with symptoms of psychological distress. (shrink)

Empathy is essential in story comprehension as it requires understanding of the emotions and intentions of the characters. We evaluated the sensitivity of an emotional perspective-taking task using Aesop’s Fables in relation to empathy. Participants (N = 301) were presented with 15 short fables and were asked to rate the intensity of the emotions they would feel (anger, sadness, disgust, fear, surprise, joy, trust, and anticipation) by adopting the perspective of one of the characters (offender, victim) or the observer’s perspective. (...) A data-driven approach revealed that participants’ responses were aligned with the characters’ intentions, suggesting successful emotional perspective-taking. Participants sympathized with the victim rather than the offender, demonstrating affective sharing processes. Further, participants with higher empathy scores exhibited stronger negative emotions from the victim’s perspective, independently of their level of distress. Our task was not influenced by gender effects. We suggest that the Aesop’s Fables task could provide an indirect instrument to study empathy. (shrink)

‘The loss of a stable state’ (Schon 1973 ) in organizational transformation can both be regarded as lamentable and inevitable. Transformation causes disruption and invasions of comfort zones to those affected by it, but it is nevertheless inevitable. The article maintains that while the loss of a stable state is inevitable in the stream of change confronting organizations today, points of stability and methods of dealing with instability are attainable through responsible management. The article postulates that steps taken by responsible (...) leadership in response to specific business crises will reduce the effects of instabilities brought about by such transformational situations and reassert a stable state more rapidly. Utilizing Weber’s ‘ideal type’ model format (Morrison 2006 ) with a specific example of international best practice of remedial steps taken by management in reaction to a specific crisis experienced by an organization, the article uses a qualitative historical case study analysis and quantitative time series research design to investigate South African firms which had recently faced crises impinging on their current corporate reputations. Findings suggest that both the number of remedial steps taken by companies and the speed in which they are implemented in conformance with the model are negatively associated with the size of the share price falls immediately post crises. The findings also suggest that larger share price appreciations over 6-month post-crises are associated with greater perceived corporate reputations and brand strengths. Tentative conclusions and possibilities for further research are briefly discussed. (shrink)

P. Papageorgiou was the last to edit the complete set of the scholia vetera to Sophocles in 1888. The narrow manuscript basis of the edition, the reluctance of the editor to use a sufficient amount of conjectural emendation and the lack of a methodology specific to editing scholia are responsible for a great number of corrupt passages in his text. This article is concerned with the critical restoration of eight such passages from the scholia to the Trachiniae: schol. Trach. (...) 7, 48, 56, 104b, 105b, 379, 434b and 556. (shrink)

39. Pythagore, ci-devant « pêcheur délien ». Selon Diogène Laërce, VIII, 5, Pythagore, dans une des vies précédentes, avait été Δήλιος άλιεύς ; cette expression est à rapprocher de Δήλιος κυρτεύς et de Δήλιος κολυμβητής qui désignent sans doute des pêcheurs de pourpre. — 40. Spécialités détiennes. La chor asiatique. Parmi les spécialités déliennes compte l'art de former les chœurs ; aux textes qui en attestent, ajouter un passage de Ménandre le Rhéteur. — 41. Eunuques et chapons. Dans Pétrone, Sal., (...) 23, les traductions françaises rendent ordinairement Deliaci manu recisi par eunuques. Il s'agit, en fait, de chapons : plusieurs textes latins témoignent que la volaille était une célébrité de Délos. — 42. Les phoques de Délos. En évoquant la naissance de phoques à Délos, Gallimaque, H. à Délos, 242-243, se réfère à une réalité zoologique encore observable aujourd'hui et qui correspond aussi au témoignage de l'Hymne homér. à Apollon. Rapprochement possible entre le nom de Psamathé, mère de Phôkos, et deux noms de l'Ile d'Hékate, Psammétiché et Psamité. — 43. L'image de Délos personnifiée et la pyxide de Spina. Réfutation de l'interprétation d'H. Gallet de Santerre : il n'y a pas de raison d'expliquer la scène par un effort de syncrétisme pythico-délien. — 44. L'Agora des Italiens était-elle un marché aux esclaves? Nouvelle réfutation de la thèse qui fait de l'Agora des Italiens un marché aux esclaves. — 45. « La structure et la vie urbaine de Délos ». Critique du livre d'Al. Papageorgiou-Venetas : la problématique est indûment calquée sur celle des villes contemporaines et les données utilisées sont trop souvent simplement inventées. — 46. Queux? Huit blocs de pierre verte très dure trouvés dans le Quartier du théâtre pourraient être des « queux » à aiguiser. (shrink)